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Harold Yates
Harold Yates (b. 2029) was an American businessman, computer programmer, investor, inventor and philanthropist who was Chief Executive Officer of Indigo Inc., which was previously the largest provider of personal electronics in the world. He was born in America as the only child of Hogarth Yates, and took over as the chairman and CEO of his father's company shortly after the beneficent dawn. In 2075, he became a father: Basil Yates would grow up to become successor of Harold following his unusual death in 2093. Biography Early Life Harold Yates was born in the aftermath of a schism that had resulted in the creation of Indigo Inc. His father, Hogarth Yates, was a shrewd businessman and vice-chairman of Apple Inc. until a split in 2030 that resulted in Hogarth and a significant proportion of Apple employees establishing a new company: Indigo Inc. Growing up whilst his father was fighting to topple lead him to a solitary childhood with only his mother, Caroline Yates, being around to support him. Often bullied for his quiet nature, Harold became a loner and used his spare time to refine his skills in computer sciences, and was employed in his father's company at the age of just fourteen. As CEO of Indigo Inc. When he succeeded his father shortly after the Beneficent Dawn in 2048, he was successful in ensuring the transition of the company from the pre-Dawn era to the post-Dawn era. Using the confusion created in the Beneficent Dawn to his advantage, his company tenaciously reached out to global markets that had previously been untapped. By 2060, Indigo Inc. had grown to become the largest information technology company in the world, licensing patented innovations to countless other companies and conglomerations including the College of Steel. Unbeknown to Harold, it was at this time that an Englishman known as Ewan Grant had established a small franchise of computer outlets that sold custom modifications of Indigo products. Dissatisfied at the decreasing quality of the products and the increasingly monopolistic arrogance of Indigo Inc., the young programmer endeavoured to offer a credible alternative and founded Tetrach Industries, which would release the CEX backframe the following year. By 2064, Harold Yates had recognised that Tetrach Industries was a serious competitor after gaining a small but significant portion of the market, and made an offer to purchase the company and all rights. Grant refused, something that Yates initially disregarded but would come to later regret. Adjusting Strategies The complacency of Indigo Inc. had proven to be a costly mistake, as whilst Tetrach continued to explode throughout the Meridia market, a Hessia mobile communications company known as Sachsman and Bach took the initiative and in 2066 assailed the lower-end of the market with cheap yet robust imitations of Indigo products. By the end of the decade, Indigo was still the largest company of it's type, but Harold knew that he would have to adapt to survive. In 2071, Harold made he decision to relocate Indigo's headquarters to London in order to better combat the threat that Ewan Grant had provided, and tapped into the upper end of the market by redesigning itself as a provider of luxury electronic goods. This rebranding was successful in keeping Tetrach Industries at bay for several years, and quickly Indigo became synonymous with quality and aesthetics. In what seemed like continued good-fortunes, Harold and his wife, Clarissa, gave birth to a son in 2075, and named him Basil. However, the fate of Harold and his company were about to change, heralded by the release of the Trakkxi in 2078. Fall from Power The release of Ewan Grant's Trakkxi technology in 2078 further hampered Indigo's progress, resulting in the company falling to second place for the first time in almost fifty years. Watching with his own eyes as his rival accelerated ahead of him, Harold desperately fought to have the patents for the Trakkxi be made public before his company became redundant, only becoming successful in 2081 after a huge proportion of consumers had abandoned Indigo's technology for Tetrach Industries. However, using Grant's innovations as a springboard, Indigo Inc. managed to make a comeback by marketing high-end products that were of substantially greater quality than rival equivalents. By 2085, the market had settled once more and Indigo sat beside Sachsman and Bach as worthwhile alternatives to Tetrach Industries. Whilst continuing to pioneer other technologies - such as advanced artificial intelligence - the release of Tetrach's CEX Mainframe resulted in the College of Steel ending Indigo's twenty year relationship with the Union. Slowly but surely, Indigo was fading from the public eye. The Harold Yates Foundation Taking time away from his work to be with his son, Harold relinquished his position as CEO to trusted advisor Edward Irons. Returning to Chicago shortly before the turn of the decade, Yates made the decision to use his power for good, therefore setting up the Harold Yates Foundation. Using his wealth to benefit others through charity and employment schemes, Harold tirelessly campaigned for worker's rights including an increase in minimum wage and mandatory welfare. Whilst having a marked effect in the United States, most of these requests were denied by the Union. Nonetheless, his foundation helped cement his image as an exemplary philanthropist. Amongst his other activities, Harold strived to ensure that Tetrach Industries were not employing unfair market strategies, using his power to ensure that research remains in the public eye. One such research project was of significant importance in times to come: Eradication Software, a powerful tool that could be used to destroy information across a public domain. After purchasing the rights for the software from a somewhat reluctant Ewan Grant, Harold personally developed the software before making a decision to close down the project after envisioning it's destructive power. Death and Legacy See also: The Murder of Harold Yates In the spring of 2093, Harold Yates was found dead following a visit to London and a meeting with a lawyer/businessman known as Oswolt Xyphoriax that regarded the fair payment of Xyphoriax's employees at Darksord Limited. The official statement by the Inquisition was that he had peacefully passed away in his sleep at the hotel in which he was staying. However, the Inquisition informed the family - including his son, Basil - that this was merely a fabrication to prevent the ugly truth from being told. Harold Yates had been found murdered, and the primary suspect was his own driver an ex-Legionnaire veteran. The death of Harold had unintended effects: his son, Basil, who would go on to become the Chairman of Indigo Inc., was particularly distraught at the revelation and took it upon himself to right the wrongs that had been exacted by his father's murderer. Basil's vigilante crusade under the pseudonym 'Hesh' would eventually lead to the disgrace of Indigo Inc. Almost ten years after his death, the company that he had nourished and sustained went bankrupt, and what few patents and research avenues it still owned were overseen by a trust lead by Edward Irons. Personality __NOEDITSECTION__ Category:Businessmen Category:Indigo Inc.